City Council will discuss a proposal Monday to replace the 52-year-old Police Services building on the corner of Clement Avenue and Richter Street.

Under a Municipal Policing Agreement, the City of Kelowna is required to provide adequate accommodations for the RCMP to perform their work within national policing standards. Kelowna RCMP says the current building does not meet those standards and therefore has the right to construct their own facility and bill it back to Kelowna residents.
The City agrees that the facilities do not meet current and future requirements and is working toward a solution.

This project, if approved, will include the design and construction of a new Police Services Building, necessary roadway and intersection improvements on Clement Avenue and Richter Street, parking lot provision, landscaping and required off-site utility servicing.

The funding strategy proposes the City secure a municipal loan for up to $42,384,000 from the Municipal Finance Authority of BC, amortized over 30 years, with another $5.6 million to come from reserve funds and other outside funding sources.

“It is important to remember that this facility is more complex than office space – it is part prison, part high-tech lab, part library and part armory or high-security storage facility," Infrastructure Division Director for the City of Kelowna, John Vos says. "It is operational 24/7 and required to be built to a post-disaster standard, which means after the occurrence of a seismic event, the building needs to not only remain standing, but needs to remain fully operational.”

If approved by council, next steps will see the elector approval process for the borrowing of funds to complete the project, which is expected to be brought before council early in 2014. If approved, construction of the new building will begin in 2015, wrapping up in late 2017.

To contact the reporter for this story, email Adam Proskiw at aproskiw@infotelnews.ca, call (250) 718-0428 or tweet @AdamProskiw.

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